


To have two feet

by digitalsoop



Category: Free!
Genre: F/M, LittleMermaid!AU, Merman!Makoto, kind of a combo of the original story and the disney version
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-30
Updated: 2013-11-06
Packaged: 2017-12-30 22:04:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 3,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1023913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitalsoop/pseuds/digitalsoop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt!Fic</p><p>Makoto has lived in the ocean his entire life, and has always desired to go farther than the water can take him. He becomes even more determined to go on land after becoming fascinated by a human girl with long red hair. Determined enough to make a deal with a witch. </p><p>Cross posted from Tumblr. Originally posted as one long piece and now divided into short chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Since this was just a prompt fill I originally saw no reason to post it as multiple chapters, or making it a 20 page affair. The chapters were already divided sections, so 7 pages is now 23 drabble length chapters.

Makoto wants to leave the ocean. It’s not that he hates being in the ocean; he grew up in it, after all, and he had friends and family that he loved very much in the ocean. There really wasn’t anything wrong with being a merman; other merfolk went through their entire lives and never once thought of leaving the ocean. But Makoto does think about it, and he thinks about it almost constantly.

The ocean seems like a big place when you’re on its surface, traveling across it in boats. But when a human travels across its surface and they reach the point where they can no longer continue, they can keep going on land.

A human, even with their limited time on Earth, has more potential than a merman could ever have. 


	2. Chapter 2

He likes to follow the boats. Not really the small row boats, but the large boats that use giant swaths of fabric to catch the wind and push through the water. He swims under them following their shadows as they go away from the shore, and then he follows another as it heads back. If he swims close enough he can hear muffled shouting and music. 

When he’s feeling especially daring he will surface behind the boat and listen, or catch a glimpse of a human. He starts to learn which boats are for business and which boats are for fun. He learns that the fabric swaths are called sails, and that some boats have cannons, but he doesn’t know what a cannon is.

One day he finds a new boat, one that is too tall in the back for his usual trick. He swims further out and peeks above the water, unable to tell if the boat is for business or for fun. What he can tell is that there are a lot of humans on it, and there is one girl that is leaning over the rail, looking out towards land, where the sea side town was.

Her hair is red, and long, and it jumps and waves in the wind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it's not obvious, this isn't set in modern times.


	3. Chapter 3

The red haired girl rides in smaller boats sometimes. She smiles a lot, and shouts a lot. He likes to swim next to the boat, under water so he’s nothing more than a blur, and roll onto his back so he can look up and see her lean over the edge and point down at him.

He likes to imagine what it would be like if the water wasn’t distorting everything above him. He wonders what her voice sounds like when she’s speaking calmly. He wonders if she sings.

Eventually, when the boat returns back to the shore, he follows it, and hides in the shadows so he can catch a glimpse of her as she returns to land, where he can’t follow. One day, someone calls her, and he learns that her name is Gou.


	4. Chapter 4

He can feel the weather begin to change before he sees Gou point up towards the sky. They are far away from the shore, anchored in the open water so they can fish with their little hooks and string. Of course, with Makoto there, no fish had been anywhere near the boat.

The storm hits before they can lift the anchor, even though he had done his best to try and help by tugging it loose. Under the water he is barely tugged by the current, accustomed to rough waters, but above him he sees the boat tossed by the waves. 

He watches the boat tilt dangerously, and he watches Gou fall into the water. She panics, weighed down by her dress; she’s desperately reaching out and trying to swim against a fast current, but she doesn’t know which way to swim. He grabs her when the bubbles begin to rush from her mouth, and her eyes close.


	5. Chapter 5

The storm dies down to a steady rain when he gently lays Gou down in the sand. He’s tired, and sore, but so relieved to see her breathing that he laughs, the waves washing over his fins, and her feet. Though he wishes it was under better circumstances, this is the first time he is able to see Gou up close.

Curious, he reaches out and touches her cheek. He’s surprised that even after being in the water her skin still feels warm. He’s making note of the gentle slope of her nose when her eyes begin to flutter open, and he tenses.

Her eyes don’t quite open all the way, and her hand absently brushes against his arm before falling back into the sand. She licks her lips. “Hello. Did you save me?”

Her voice is smooth and warm. He smiles. “I did. I’m glad you’re okay.”

He wants to stay, but he can hear voices coming from further down the beach; he pulls himself into the water, diving under the shallow waves, and watches from behind an outcrop. A redheaded boy finds her.


	6. Chapter 6

Makoto wants to be human. Somehow, during all the times he had thought of how he wants to leave the ocean, it had never crossed his mind to become a human. But how else could he expect to leave the ocean, if he wasn’t one?

How could a human grow to love him, if he wasn’t one?


	7. Chapter 7

All the young merfolk are told stories about the sea witch; she is a fairy tale, a hag that takes children that don’t behave. As the young merfolk grow older, they learn that the she is an exile who practices dangerous magic. When they are a little older, they can ask the right people and discover that she can solve any problem, if you can find her in the dark caves.

Makoto finds her, even though he is pale faced and shaking when they’re finally face to face; she is not old, like he imagined, but she is not pretty; her eyes are white, her features sharp, and her fingers too long. He thinks his heart will stop when she smiles, and shows off sharp teeth.

"You want to be human, for a chance at true love," she croons. He freezes as she swims around him, a long finger hooking under his chin. He twists away, putting a hand on his throat. "Don’t be so alarmed. I  _am_ magic.”

"W-what do I have to do?"

"If you can pay, my magic will do the work."


	8. Chapter 8

The sea witch gives him a potion and three days.

In return, she takes his voice. A down payment, of sorts.

If he succeeds and receives a kiss from his true love, he can regain his voice, and life the rest of his life as a human.

He doesn’t want to think about what will happen if he fails. He swims to the shallows with part of a sail left from a shipwreck, and drinks the potion. He supposes it is lucky that the witch had taken his voice, because he cannot scream when his tail splits in two.


	9. Chapter 9

Walking is a tough business. If he isn’t tripping on the sail he’s using as makeshift clothes, he’s wobbling because he can’t quite make sense of what to do with a pair of knees. He sits in the sand, and it crosses his mind that even if he makes it to town, he doesn’t know how they will react. He doesn’t know how he’ll find Gou, when he can’t speak to anyone.

"Look! I told you that someone was in trouble. He must have washed up from a wreck."

"That doesn’t explain where his clothes went."

He looks up to find red hair and he smiles.


	10. Chapter 10

The boy that found Gou is named Rin, and he’s her older brother. He is the one that Makoto has to borrow clothes from, though he’s taller and bigger than the red head. Gou explains that they are from another country and live alone together, until their parents eventually arrive.

They are both baffled that he can’t speak, but she at least takes it in stride. “You must have been through something horrible. I’m sorry.”

He remembers the pain that had torn through his spine and nods.  _"Don’t worry."_

They stare at him, and Gou anxiously turns to her brother. “We should get him some paper and a pen, at least.”

Makoto flushes and shakes his head, waving his hands. Rin crosses his arms. “Not everyone knows how to write, Gou.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think they would have functional ink and paper in the ocean. So I imagine Makoto actually uses a writing system similar to cuneiform or runes, but can speak and understand human language (along with his own language of sounds or signals for communicating across long distances).


	11. Chapter 11

Gou doesn’t sing, but she does like to dance. She also likes to write. Not so much stories, but she likes to make pretty, sweeping letters with different colored ink. She has him sit beside her while she fills pieces of paper with one letter each, and he helps her fan the ink with his hands so it won’t smudge.

"You at least understand what I’m saying, so I’m going to teach you to read and write! We’ll start with your name first, okay? If the letter sounds like it’s part of your name just nod. Then you can practice writing that letter, and I’ll learn your name! So, we’ll try to figure out the first letter."

He smiles and nods. She carefully sounds out and names each letter, and he’s happy to just listen to her voice and watch the way her lips move. She laughs when he struggles to use the pen and smears the ink, but he doesn’t mind because if he could he would have laughed, too.

His letters don’t even deserve to be in the same room as hers, but she looks so pleased when he’s finished that he starts to believe that he would never write more beautiful letters in his entire life. She takes his hands in her much smaller ones, ignoring the ink, and giggles. “Good job, Makoto!”

No one else will be able to do his name justice ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't picture her teaching him Kanji, but a more uh... basic and easier alphabet, haha. They're also not using a ball point pen, but I didn't want them using quills either. It's probably a very early fountain pen or something.


	12. Chapter 12

"Did you have a family, Makoto?"

It’s the night of the first day, and Rin managed to borrow clothes from someone closer to his size. The siblings talk a lot during meals, mostly about what they’ve done; it seems like if they aren’t in the house in the same time, they aren’t spending time together. He supposes it was the same way with him and his siblings.

He looks down at his dinner, for the first time thinking of what he left behind. Gou and Rin both look at him sympathetically. Rin is the only one that seems to be bold enough to ask. “Were they lost at sea?”

He can’t explain that he had lost them by choice.


	13. Chapter 13

Gou is very happy to take him around town, and link her arm with his as they walk. He’s still getting used to his legs, and to shoes, but, Makoto is determined to walk for as long as Gou wants to; he watches her talk about the stores and houses, studying the way her eyebrows arch and furrow, the way her lips frown and purse.

He doesn’t realize people have been looking at him until they’re stopped by a woman with black hair. She greets Gou and looks up at him curiously, and Makoto hesitantly nods.

"You’re very tall aren’t you?" the woman laughs.

He knows that he’s taller than Rin and Gou, and also this woman, but he has no idea if he’s very tall. He looks to Gou for help and she tilts her head to look up at him. “He  _is_ very tall.”

"Taller than my husband, I think," the woman says. "Are you a friend of Rin and Gou?"

He flushes, and he doesn’t know whether he should nod or not. Gou squeezes his arm. “He’s mute, ma’am. He was nearly lost at sea.”

He learns, from their continued conversation, that there have been many shipwrecks in the past month. The people in town are starting to believe the waters are too dangerous to sail on. Makoto shakes his head and points to the sky.

He can tell that they don’t understand, and he’s just as baffled when the woman asks if he thinks it’s divine punishment. Was weather really punishment?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically Makoto is just trying to tell them the area just has bad weather pretty often and the water is actually fine.


	14. Chapter 14

He slips his shoes off as soon as they reach the beach, and he sighs in relief and wiggles his toes. The sand is hot, but his feet are so sore he doesn’t even care. Gou watches him, then smiles and sits down, and pulls her shoes off as well.

"It’s hot!"

Makoto’s eyes widen slightly; Gou is giggling, but is carefully pressing her toes against the sand and lifting them back up. She reaches for her shoes, and Makoto crouches down in front her and holds out his arms. When she doesn’t respond he thinks she doesn’t understand, so he stands up and moves his arms up and down.

"You’ll carry me?"

He nods and points to the water, where the sand is wet. She blushes, putting her hands on her cheeks when he crouches back down. He smiles and raises his eyebrows, and finally she puts her arms around his neck. He tucks an arm under her knees and lifts her up, and she laughs and pulls herself closer.

He’s reluctant to put her down when he reaches the water, but he does, and she takes his hand and walks him along the beach. She points out sea shells, and kicks at the waves, and she claps her hands when he joins in. He wishes he could laugh.


	15. Chapter 15

"This beach… it’s where we found you, right?" Gou is looking out at the water, crouched beside him with a stick in hand. They had been drawing letters and shapes in the sand, and Makoto watches as the waves lap away some of them.

She sits down, setting the stick aside, and he mimics her, stretching his legs into the waves.

She mimics him when he wiggles his toes. “You know, I was found on this beach, too.” He knows that, but he does his best to look surprised. “I was out on a sailboat when a storm hit. I fell into the water, and the next thing I knew, I was here.”

"My brother thinks I’m crazy, because no one was there when he found me, but I think someone saved me." He turns to watch her lay back on the sand, and when she looks up at him with a smile he holds his breath. "That was you… right?"

Carefully, he reaches out, touches her cheek, and nods.


	16. Chapter 16

Gou keeps him up most of the second night with questions; she wants to know where he’s from, how he had saved her, where he had disappeared to, if he was a sailor, and how he had lost his voice. “You talked me, so you must have been born with a voice.”

He frowns and looks at his hands. He doesn’t know how he can explain that he traded his voice away, or if he even should. Gou frowns as well, and pinches his arm. When he jumps and opens his mouth in a silent shout, she quickly rubs his arm. “I’m sorry! I just thought maybe you were pretending for some reason.”

He gives her a skeptical smile and shakes his head, his shoulders slumping. He tilts his head, eyebrows rising curiously. When he shrugs and taps his throat she gives him a sheepish smile. “Why would anyone pretend, right? I don’t know. Do you remember how you lost it?”

His shoulders hunch, and he rubs his arm. He’s tired of smiling and nodding. When he quietly presses his knuckles to his mouth and looks at the floor, Gou stands up, and puts a hand on his back. “I’ll make you some tea.”


	17. Chapter 17

He wakes up on the third day and feels like he’s been paralyzed. He doesn’t want to get out of bed, or go outside. If he doesn’t look at the sun, or if he denies its existence entirely, maybe everything will be okay even if he can’t get a kiss from his true love.

He is sitting in bed with a hand on his chest when Rin comes to see if he’s awake. “Gou wants to know if you want to go out on the boat with us.”

The last thing he wants is to be on the water when the sun sets. Because it’s Gou that wants him there, he nods.


	18. Chapter 18

For the first time he is able to see Gou as she travels across the water; as she smiles and shouts and looks over the edge into the water below. He looks with her, even though he knows she won’t find what she’s looking for.

Rin tolerates it all with a focused calm. He had warned her that if he saw even the slightest sign of a gray cloud he would turn the boat right back around. “I should have been out here with you the last time.”

"He thinks because he’s learning to build boats that he’s a good sailor," she explains. Rin makes an annoyed sound and she giggles. "Don’t worry, we’ll be okay if something happens. Makoto is with us."

"Why does that make a difference?"

Gou winks at Makoto. “None of your business, brother.”


	19. Chapter 19

He watches the sun, and tries several times to kiss Gou when he feels the moment would be right.

When the boat is anchored and they lean over the edge of the boat, Gou looks at him and smiles, and just as he tilts his head towards her, Rin tells them not to lean over so far. When Gou shows him how to cast a fishing line, and she stands very close with a hand on his back, Rin tells her to mind her own line just as Makoto starts to lean down. When Gou tries to share part of her lunch with him, Rin steals it. When Gou tries to hold his hand, Rin stands between them.

When he glares at him, Makoto understands that he’s doing this on purpose. He looks back at the sun and tries to judge if he can work around this, or if he has to push Rin into the ocean and fish him back out once his voice is back so he can apologize.

He frowns at Rin, and decides that he has another two hours before he’s going overboard.


	20. Chapter 20

"Makoto! Look!"

He raises his eyebrows, looking away from the darkening horizon and turning to Gou. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to do something as drastic as push Rin into the ocean. Rin had stayed by Gou’s side while the sun moved further and further west, and the sky slowly began to turn pink and orange.

Still, the closer he is to her the greater chance that he can work up the courage to kiss her despite Rin’s interference. Even if he’s too late, or even if it isn’t true love, at least he would be able to take that with him. So, he joins her and Rin by the edge of the boat, and leans over to look into the water.

"It’s been circling the boat for a bit," Gou mutters, pointing out the dark shape beneath the water.

Rin frowns. “It’s making me nervous.”

Makoto doesn’t think to back away until the water surges upwards, and long fingers dig into his shirt and pull him into the ocean.


	21. Chapter 21

He doesn’t know how to swim with legs, but with the sea witch’s hands around his neck it doesn’t matter; he scratches and pulls at her hands and arms, and tries to reach for her eyes but he can’t quite make it. She had warned him that his voice was only a down payment, that she was generous and wouldn’t collect full payment if he succeeded.

"If you fail, I collect your heart."

 _She tricked me._ He stares at her white eyes, the edges of his vision starting to grow dark. He sees bubbles leave his mouth, red hair and blood.

Her hands let go and he swallows water as a very warm, very human hand hooks under his arm and pulls him to the surface.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided that rather than turning him to seafoam the sea witch stays young by eating the hearts of young merfolk.


	22. Chapter 22

"Hurry up and pull us out," Rin gasps, hoisting Makoto as high as he can while he coughs and gasps. Gou reaches over and grabs his arm, then his wrist, and pulls as Rin pushes him up into the boat. He winces as he falls onto the deck, and when Rin is helped back into the boat he leaps across Makoto and lets down the sails.

Gou kneels beside him as he coughs, touching the side of his face. “Makoto, are you alright?”

He looks up at her, then past her, to the sky. He frowns and reaches up to the back of her head, pulls her down, and kisses her. Her lips are warm, and soft. He knows his lips taste like salt water and are probably cold, but she doesn’t pull away.

"Oi! I just saved your life from that  _thing_  and that’s the first thing you do?”

He loosens his grip and Gou pulls back slightly, her face bright red. “Makoto?”

The sky is dark purple and dusty blue. He slowly sits up and looks to the horizon. He wiggles his toes.

Gou’s hands touch his arm, and her brow furrows when he looks at her. “Is something wrong? Are you okay?”

He laughs. “I’m wonderful.”


	23. Chapter 23

Makoto and Gou sit on the beach together some days later, the waves washing over their feet.

"I would have fallen in love with you even if you did have a tail."

"I wouldn’t be able to go where you go, like I can now."

She smiles and threads her fingers through his. “That’s true. But I would still love you.”

He laughs and kisses her fingers. “That’s the point of true love, isn’t it?”  


End file.
